Funding secured for NUI Galway STI clinic

BY MATT CASSIDY Galway Advertiser, Thu, Jun 30, 2016

NUI Galway has secured funding to open a sexually transmitted infections clinic on its campus.

The clinic which will begin operations at the start of the new academic year, received its funding from the University’s Student Projects Fund and will only be available for students of NUI Galway as well as being free of charge.

NUI Galway Students’ Union president Phelim Kelly says the new STI clinic on campus is an important development in highlighting and treating sexual health among students.

“We have found that the open clinic in UCHG is quite popular and in some cases students cannot make it to the drop in they have on a Wednesday and Friday morning. We in the Students’ Union like to promote safe, healthy, and consensual sex among the student body and we want to get students who are sexually active in the habit of getting tested to look after themselves and prevent the spread of infections. Having a clinic on campus allows for less waiting times and promotes a healthier attitude towards sex.”

Kelly continues, “There is a prevalence of STIs among young people under 25 which coincidentally is the age bracket of students in university. As part of the clinic there will be a research element where we will check the usage of the clinic and prevalence of students presenting with an infection. We hope that this will give us some statistically sound data to see what the situation is like for students in Galway. Hopefully having the clinic will make students more aware of STIs and see that you need to get tested/treated for everyone’s sake as well as your own.

“I am very grateful to the NUI Galway Student Projects fund for funding the application.”